Can a NASCAR driver win a championship without winning a race? Sheldon Creed thinks so

Sheldon Creed recently offered his take on the possibility of winning a championship without securing a race victory. While he acknowledges that it is certainly achievable, his primary goal remains to compete on the track and win races rather than relying solely on stage points to advance.

With an average starting position of P9 and finishing at P12, Sheldon Creed has shown consistency throughout the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series. Despite not yet securing a win, he has achieved thirteen top-5 and seventeen top-10 finishes across the 26 races he has been a part of this year. The consistency has enabled him to reach the playoffs, entering the Round of 12 while currently positioned at P9, just three points behind the cutline for advancing to the Round of 8.

However, when recently asked for his opinion on whether a driver could win the championship under the chase format without a single race victory, Creed responded:

"Yeah, it's doable. I mean, it's been proven by Matt [Crafton] in the truck. I think he finished second that day. feet there in Homestead. It's obviously doable. I think [Aric] Almirola's in the car in the #20 car at Phoenix. So he could win the race and win the championship title or the owner's title. And... we could run second and win the drivers title. Certainly doable! Do I want to do it that way? No, I want to go win races."

The chase format was first introduced in the Cup Series after Matt Kenseth secured the 2003 championship without winning a single race that season. Later, in 2016, NASCAR implemented the Playoffs format in its lower divisions, including the Trucks and Xfinity Series.

In past seasons, some drivers have achieved the feat of winning the championship without winning a race. For instance, in 2013, Austin Dillon captured the Xfinity Series championship despite going winless throughout the season. Similarly, in 2019, Matt Crafton secured the Truck Series title without making it to Victory Lane all year.

In 2021, Daniel Hemric seemed poised to join Dillon in this rare statistic by potentially winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship without a race victory. However, his triumph at Phoenix Raceway during the Xfinity finale put an end to that speculation.

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Previewing Sheldon Creed's Kansas Lottery 300 race at Kansas Speedway

Sheldon Creed, determined to break his streak of runner-up finishes following another second-place result at Bristol Motor Speedway, will head into the Kansas Lottery 300 with an average finish of 7.0 across two previous races at the track.

In those two races, he secured a P22 finish in 2022 after starting from P3, and a P3 finish in 2023 after starting from P16. However, this marks the first time Sheldon Creed will drive a Toyota Camry at the Kansas racetrack.